__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

As he wrote 25 years ago, Ford designed it not for racing, but for something even harder on brake fluid--Grandpa dragging the brakes with his left toe in his Lincoln Continental.

All mounted up:

And the test ride, now with proper moto boots:

And how it looks now:

I'll probably get maybe an hour a week on this project for the next ten weeks, getting little bits of it done. I could be riding in May!

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

Hell season is just about over at the Number Factory. Today was probably the last Saturday I'll work this year, and it was a short one at that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by melville

I'll probably get maybe an hour a week on this project for the next ten weeks, getting little bits of it done.

Yeah, that didn't happen. Weather sucked, and I was one tired bean counter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by "melville

I could be riding in May!

Not out of the question--maybe Memorial Day. Got to verify $$$ first.

So today, after doing a little yard work, I rolled it out into the sun and dusted off the winter's accumulation. Then the younger boy and I had some coaster fun. Rolled it across the driveway for a brake test, and then one good push up the street and a great coast down. ATGATT, of course. Pushing a 400 lb incomplete MC uphill in ATGATT is hot sweaty work. I do look forward to having power.

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

Not much to report. Rain and other commitments are conspiring against progress. The front fender is now mounted:

And the starter relay is continuing to vex me. A new one is $100+, so I've been cleaning terminals and checking voltages at the various connections trying to figure out what's missing. Next is probably trying a regular 30A Bosch relay, bypassing the neutral/clutch lockouts, to see if the problem is, in fact, the relay.

Next weekend I'm working on the loose nut holding the bars, taking my MSF BRC. That should provide some inspiration to finish the job here.

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

I'm just curious. I took the ARC at the MOA rally last year and it only cost $45.00 IIRC.

It's the same guys who run the MSF courses by you. $250 because I'm over 21 (or was it 18?), $150 if I were just a bit younger.

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

The starter relay has been vexing me. I've cleaned the terminals, checked the wiring, defeated the interlocks (for test purposes only) and never got more than a faint click coming from some other thing in the headlight bucket. When I started this project, the relay gave me trouble as well, but functioned decently once I cleaned the terminals. Move forward a year to the reassembly stage, and it refused to function. Today I rechecked the wiring of the starter switch circuit and it all seemed fine--continuity as it should be, switch functioning, everything that was spozed to be hot was hot, everything that was spozed to be ground was ground. I then hooked up a couple leads to the terminals of the battery and tried hotwiring the switch side of the relay and got nothing. I've been resisting replacing the relay because it's a specific BMW $$$ part, toward the bottom right of this diagram:

But if you look at the schematic it looks like a regular old DIN relay with a couple extra terminals to connect the blue wires, which are part of the charging system. This was confirmed for me when I got the most recent issue of BMW Owner's News where Saint Matthew of Parkhouse replaced the BMW part with a plain old DIN relay, and connected the blue wires separately to fix his old /5. I have no idea how that got published, as I'm sure that BMW doesn't want us buying $5 relays from NAPA instead of $100 relays from the dealer. So anyway, I found a spare relay in my pile o' VW stuff, hooked it up to the load (starter) wires, and hotwired the switch side as before. NaNaNaNaNaNa! I then hooked it up more properly to the switch circuit, and was able to run the starter off the button, as God and Max Friz intended. Here's how it looks now. I'll be installing it properly soon:

This frees up a lot of mental space for me to pursue other electrical anomalies. Also, later this week, Mrs. melville and I will discuss moto budget for the near future.

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

Moto budget discussion a moderate success! I can proceed at an out of pocket pace, and my pocket has been enhanced.

Today, more fun mit electrons. In the last installment, I discovered I can replace this $100 part:

With this $15 part:

I will have two of these Bosch relays on Monday, one for the starter and one for the horn. Just go to your VW FLAPS and ask for a starter booster relay. Note that they have a mounting point on top that can go right to the fittings already on the frame. About the horn--PO had installed a Fiamm, mounted to some of the fairing hardware, with a domestic relay of some kind in place, taking the hot right off the battery with an inline fuse. Trying to keep it all DIN, I replaced the wire with a red wire, the relay with the Bosch piece and got lucky (had to work at it) taking the ground through the chassis. I had to get a new inline fuse--when I peeled the electrical tape off the old fuse holder it was revealed that it was broken in three pieces, held together with the tape. It's all tootin' happy now:

I'm a little concerned that I have to R and R the horn to R and R the front cover. How did early R90S mount their Fiamms? Did they have different mounts on the frame? After all that fun, I worked at cleaning up the wiring routing and reinstalled this rubber bit:

Then I went on to the headlight. I had test fitted it earlier but never powered it up, and it's been out while I chased other electrical demons. After making space in the shell for the lamp, where the US length handlebar switch harnesses make it kinda tight inside when Euro bars are installed, I got it popped in and found that I had a functioning parking light. I also seem to have a passing beam, but I don't seem to have a steady on low or high beam. The bike is pre-1978, and as such comes with a "Euro" light switch, like so:

There are three positions on the switch--top looks like it says "OFF" and then there are two white lines. What should I expect for each position? The lower button is the dimmer, and it appears to work as a rocker switch. When it is held down, it appears to give high beam for as long as it's held (the "passing" beam?). When it's pushed up, shouldn't the dimmer relay get all excited? I'm getting no white hot love form the headlamp system at this point.

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

I do know that on the R90/6 that I worked on had the single flat buzzer type horn and it did not require R/R to remove the front cover. There may be a missing dog-leg type bracket on your horn that moved the horn forward of the cover.

I will say that I think Fiamms are much more audible when using both the high and low tones and recommend installing both. They're fairly inexpensive - ~$17 for each - and available at auto parts stores or Aerostich, etc.:http://www.aerostich.com/fiamm-freew...ster-horn.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by melville

Then I went on to the headlight...

...There are three positions on the switch--top looks like it says "OFF" and then there are two white lines. What should I expect for each position? he lower button is the dimmer, and it appears to work as a rocker switch. When it is held down, it appears to give high beam for as long as it's held (the "passing" beam?). When it's pushed up, shouldn't the dimmer relay get all excited? I'm getting no white hot love form the headlamp system at this point.

IIRC, top is off, middle is parking lights (20 watt lamp in headlight and tail light) and the bottom position is headlight on. From there the headlight is controlled with the rocker: middle = headlight, down turns on the high beam as long as it's depressed and up = high beam on. Hmmm, it sounds like you may have a switch/wiring issue?

I've mentioned this before but I'm really enjoying your build and am glad to see an update. I can't wait to see more progress.

Yeah, that's the relay I'm using for the horn. My VW FLAPS had only one relay Friday, so I've still got the starter on that Hella relay dangling in space. Should be all fixed this afternoon.

Also this afternoon, I think I may have figured out what's up with the headlight. It occurs to me now that the dip switch has full power running through it and that it is itself the switch for high and low beams, unlike my newer VWs which use a dimmer relay. As well, there are two yellow wires coming from the switch--one brings power in from the relay and one sends it out to low beam. As much as I can tell, if they are transposed I should get the sitch I have now, which is "passing light only."

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

Yeah, that's the relay I'm using for the horn. My VW FLAPS had only one relay Friday, so I've still got the starter on that Hella relay dangling in space. Should be all fixed this afternoon.

Here ya go, Blaine:

And when I was done it occurred to me that I was dangling the wiring a bit lower than the original so I got the tank on for a minute to check:

Loving that big tank!

__________________Call me Mel. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me at home, I thought I would ride about a little and see the other parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.